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Pupils leave school

A 16-year-old is in critical but stable condition in shooting at Taft Union High School southwest of Bakersfield. 'There's blood everywhere,' a student told her mother.

TAFT, Calif. — A 16-year-old was in critical condition Thursday night after a fellow student interrupted a first-period class at Taft Union High School southwest of Bakersfield, confronted him by name and fired a round from a 12-gauge shotgun into his upper body. The assailant, also 16, tried to shoot a second student and missed before a science teacher was able to talk him down, apparently taking the shotgun as the other students fled from the classroom through a door. Police officers arrived after the teacher had disarmed the assailant and took the teenager into custody. They seized the shotgun.

The teacher, Ryan Heber, was struck in the head by a pellet but was not seriously injured and refused treatment, authorities said. "If it weren't for this teacher and his quick response, we don't know what would have happened," Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Police said a school supervisor helped Heber distract the assailant. There were no security guards or police immediately on hand to help them: The school's armed police officer was not on duty Thursday because he had been delayed by snow, authorities said.

Airsoft gun

Cameron Mohamed and his girlfriend were walking to their car in the parking lot of a Lutz, Florida, Wal-Mart at 3:00 a.m. Jan. 2. 

The couple was approached by a man who asked Mohamed if he was a Muslim. Mohamed said no, but the man yelled racial slurs, pulled out a gun and fired. Mohamed, a concealed carry permit holder, was armed with a .45, but decided not to draw his gun.

His assailant, later identified as 25-year-old Daniel Quinnell, was firing pellets. He fired 20 times from close range and struck Mohamed in the face, neck and chest. “I got the first hit in the face, and kind of realized I was still standing and I wasn’t — I wasn’t dead,” Mohamed told ABC Action News.

"You ma’am have overstepped a line"

A letter written by an 8-year Marine veteran to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the architect of the comprehensive 2013 Assault Weapons Ban, has gone viral.

The author of the letter, Cpl. Joshua Boston who was deployed to Afghanistan between 2004-05, told CNN that he opposes gun registration because it will lead to confiscation. Moreover, that passing more gun control laws will only serve to disarm law-abiding citizens, leaving them defenseless.

“I own the guns I own because I acknowledge mankind’s shortcomings instead of pretending like they don’t exist. There are evil men in this world and there just may be a time when I need to do the unthinkable to protect me or my family,” Boston said.

Germany has compiled a national register of firearms

Germany has compiled a national register of firearms for the first time.

Figures previously held by a multitude of local authorities have been centrally pooled as part of efforts to curb gun violence.

Germany's new national firearms registry established that there were 5.5 million legal guns in private ownership nationwide.

Medal of Honor Warfighter

In the wake of the recent mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) has removed links from the website for its popular military shooter “Medal of Honor: Warfighter” that allowed visitors to the page to shop for real weapons featured in the game.

Representatives for the Redwood City, California-based video game publisher were not immediately available for comment. But a spokesperson for the company told the BBC this week that the EA "felt it was inappropriate and took the links down."

Logos for the various weapon manufacturers and retailers, along with descriptions of the guns in question, are still available on the “Warfighter” website, however.

Janet Hasson, publisher, Journal News

The map indicates the addresses of all Journal News Employees in the New York Tri-State area.

Each dot represents an individual Journal News employee -- a reporter, editor or staffer.

The data does not include freelancers — reporters or photographers — which can be hired without being an employee.

NRA has called for placing armed guards in all American schools

In response to the massacre of 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., an Ohio-based gun group has launched a test program to train teachers how to use firearms.

The Buckeye Firearms Association announced that it initially will accept applications from 24 teachers for the Armed Teacher Pilot Program, a three-day firearm-training class at the Tactical Defense Institute in West Union, Ohio.

The association will pay expenses for the training, including lodging and ammunition.

Westchester County

The map indicates the addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties.

Each dot represents an individual permit holder licensed to own a handgun — a pistol or revolver.

The data does not include owners of long guns — rifles or shotguns — which can be purchased without a permit.

School in Harrold

In the tiny Texas town of Harrold, children and their parents don't give much thought to safety at the community's lone school - mostly because some of the teachers are carrying concealed weapons.

In remote Harrold, the nearest sheriff's office is 30 minutes away, and people tend to know - and trust - one another. So the school board voted to let teachers bring guns to school.

"We don't have money for a security guard, but this is a better solution," Superintendent David Thweatt said. "A shooter could take out a guard or officer with a visible, holstered weapon, but our teachers have master's degrees, are older and have had extensive training. And their guns are hidden. We can protect our children."

Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A. vice president

WASHINGTON — After a weeklong silence, the National Rifle Association announced Friday that it wants to arm security officers at every school in the country. It pointed the finger at violent video games, the news media and lax law enforcement — not guns — as culprits in the recent rash of mass shootings.

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A. vice president, said at a media event that was interrupted by protesters. One held up a banner saying, “N.R.A. Killing Our Kids.”

An “Assault” Weapons Ban is not the Answer

Well, here we are, several days after one of the most horrific school shootings in America’s history.

A 20-year-old gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT and murdered 27 people, including 20 young children and seven women, before committing suicide.

An event like this is unthinkable. It epitomizes the word ‘tragedy.’ And both gun owners and gun-control activists agree that, as President Obama said in his speech last night before residents of that grief-stricken, New England town, “We can’t accept events like this as routine.”

NeoStead 2000

South Africa has had a long history of armed conflict and, as such, has an equally long history of innovate local weapons design—so innovative in fact, they’re solution based designs have been copied by manufacturers internationally.

With limited budgets South African arms makers have a reputation of doing ‘more with less’ and a good example of this (and one we can see elements of Kel-tec’s latest combat shotgun, the KSG) is the NeoStead 2000.

Open letter

Gentlemen: I see that you have chosen to use the horrific crime of the murder of Kasandra Perkins to express your belief that guns are the problem, not the men who wield them. I am utterly certain that you believe that you have the moral high ground on this matter. I am equally certain that such a belief is appallingly wrong, not to mention terribly misogynistic. Why do I say this? Because had your desires on gun control been in place, I would not be alive to be writing this now.